A 40-year-old Lakeland woman using her motorized wheelchair to travel east on the shoulder of West Pipkin Road was killed around at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve when she was struck by a silver Mazda CX5 with an impaired driver at the wheel.
Leslie Stone, who had a 3-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter, died at the scene near Fairfield Drive. Howard Bennett, 67, of Plant City, was arrested and charged with DUI manslaughter.
The tragedy was the second pedestrian death on West Pipkin Road this month — and another situation where urgently needed roadway improvements might have made conditions safer.
The segment of the road where Stone died is still just three undivided lanes with no sidewalks. Improvements are underway as part of a three-year, $55.6 million road-widening project, but the work is not expected to be finished until November 2024.
About 2.4 miles to the west, a Central Florida Aerospace Academy student was hit and killed by a school bus on Dec. 5. Jaxon Crabtree, 15, was trying to cross West Pipkin Road at the Medulla Road intersection on his bicycle at 6:58 a.m., just before sunrise.
The intersection is due to get a traffic signal, but the project has been delayed by supply chain issues. For now, a series of orange and white construction barrels and barricades funnel westbound Pipkin Road traffic into one lane just before Medulla Road. In addition, county officials have installed four-foot-tall white traffic-control posts at the intersection.
Plans for traffic signal were submitted in March
Plans for the traffic signal were submitted to Polk County officials in March of this year and approved in April, records provided by county officials to LkldNow show.
The plans call for a pedestrian detector and signal, a steel mast arm, and electrical power, to a prestressed concrete pole and concrete sidewalks.
They were prepared by Raysor Transportation Consulting of Tampa on behalf of Riverstone, Inc., the development being built by former Florida Representative and Senator J.D. Alexander.
The developers of the Riverstone neighborhood, on the south side of the Medulla and Pipkin Road intersections, agreed in March 2018 to install a traffic signal at that intersection once certain phases of the subdivision were completed.
On the day of the accident, Alexander, who signed the document, said supply chain issues have held up delivery of the traffic light.
“We have had the equipment, the signalization equipment, ordered for year and a half. We expect delivery in February and it will be installed March, April of this coming year.” Alexander said.
He added that their agreement with the city does not require them to install the signal until all the lots are built out. He added that deadline was reached recently.
City and county officials issued a statement verifying Alexander’s comments.
“The installation of the signal has been stalled due to supply-chain issues in procuring the controller cabinet,” the city and county joint statement read. “Delays in the manufacture and delivery of specialized signal equipment such as mast arms, signal hangers, and controller cabinets is something that is impacting projects nationwide. Equipment delivery delays have pushed-back schedules on similar county and FDOT projects over the past two-years.”
In fact, the Pipkin Road widening project is about a year behind schedule.
Media reports show people living and working in the neighborhood have been asking for a stoplight. Data provided by city spokesman Kevin Cook shows the number of accidents at that intersection have skyrocketed in the last five years:
- 2019 – 0
- 2020 – 3
- 2021 – 6
- 2022 – 12
- 2023 – 18
Jaxon’s father, Jason Crabtree, said Jaxon wanted to become a pilot and enlist in the United States Coast Guard. The school held a memorial service for Jaxon the week following the accident.
“It was an accident to the best of my knowledge at this point and accidents happen,” Crabtree said earlier this month. “That’s life, we’re human. We’re strong, but so fragile.”
This week, Jaxon’s mother, Dawn Friesenborg, thanked LkldNow for following up on the information.
“(I am) praying that changes are made swiftly to help prevent any additional tragedies in the future,” Friesenborg wrote in a text message.
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It is time for the state to create an independent police force dedicated to enforcing traffic rules. They are commonly flouted in western Polk County with impunity.
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